COMPLAINT AGAINST CONFISCATION OF EZ LINK CARD!!!
-
MS, I think it is you who needs to do the acknowledging here.Originally posted by MS:I know you're unhappy. But you forgot to acknowledge that students bus fare is not an entitlement. It is subsidised because the transport companies want to help those who're in need.
You have to acknowledge that if one day the companies decided to withdraw this previledge & make everyone pay adult fare you still have to pay it.
I apologise for the following brutal fact which may sound offensive but I'm trying to explain in to reality... "If you're not happy then get yourself your own transport or walk."
BTW, if you think that this is a real problem, write in properly and be focus on your objective and avoid unnecessary offensive remarks. Because when you behave like a gentleman, you'll realise that things move faster.
I wish you all the best.
The regular heartlander is not trained to talk like a lawyer or politician, and should not be expected to. Now instead of plain *reacting* to the emotion in the threadstarter's post, perhaps a more effective way to address this issue would be to first recognize & acknowledge his key concerns .. then put yourself in his shoes. If you had done so, you would've realized that threadstarter has been subjected to quite abit of trouble for an issue that should be quite straightforward, and you would be able to give more helpful replies to the threadstarter.
Threadstarter is angry - and rightfully so :
Instead of being professionally re-directed to the cust svc hotline/nearest bus terminal, the faulty concession card was confiscated on the spot as if he were a fare cheat.. can you imagine the humiliation? Guilty before proven innocent! He was able to calmly produce an original receipt as proof of validity. He had obviously prepared for such a scenario to his best ability as a customer. Even if card confiscation were "company policy", this should have been more than sufficient to avoid confiscation. Cust had obviously made a valiant effort to pursue the matter with SBS by calling their hotline and making repeated trips down to bus terminals, yet staff failed to recognize what was going on and take initiative to provide further assistance. Why must the cust write in to complain before any action will be taken? Cust has wasted time & money on travel due to SBS's poorly refined process.. and not the smallest show of company goodwill from SBS? All this over a faulty card - whose fault is that? Not the customer, not the company. So just as it's not right for the customer to blame the company for the card fault, it is not right for the company to shove the blame (and all costs) to the customer, either!
"Good customer service" is about being customer-centric enough to correctly interpret the customer's issues and make good, and I can fairly say that SBS has been an inexcusably poor performer in that area... this, despite increasing fares and making roaring profits.
The relationship between SBS, a bus company, and its commuters should be a 2-way street. SBS relies on commuters for profit, commuters rely on SBS for transport. Has SBS forgotten that it should be a priviledge to meet, and even exceed, the needs of its customers, and not the other way round? Or is it simply taking advantage of its customers now that it thinks its indisposable?
Threadstarter, go write CASE if SBS persists with its non-response.. don't forget to cc SBS !
-
THANKS. I hope everyone else take note. As for me, I don't use easy link card for taking buses. It is cheaper to pay cash.Originally posted by UnLeAsH_cHa0s:SO NEXT TIME U TAKE BUS, UR CARD SOMEHOW GOT SOME IDIOTIC ERROR N THE DVR INSIST ON TAKING UR CARD 4 WATEVER REASON, DONT GIVE HIM!!! KEEP UR CARD N TRY 2 VERIFY WIF TICKETING OFFICE OR WATEVER JUS DONT GIVE HIM THE CARD. I HAVE VERIFIED THIS WIF A LOT OF OTHER BUS DVRS N THEY HAVE COMFIRMED THAT EXPIRED CARDS R NOT 2 B CONFISCATED INSTEAD RETURNED TO THE OWNER. -
ok tks guys 4 all ur feedbacks. jus wanna make something clear. my thread is not aimed at slandering SBS ir transitlink or watever bus company there is. n to those replies sided towards SBS, think again, if u were me, u will b song meh? u will jus let it happen n pay for ur own fares, not 2 mention losing a card 4 no reason? Eh mind u i did pay my adult fare on that screwed up trip, i did not intend 2 cheat that few cents of money ok! at that time not only m i having the student concession card, i bought bus concession as well, n it had almost 2 weeks to go!! think again, i can jus make a big fuss abt it n snatch the card back etc etc etc, but i did not cos i dont wan 2 affect his driving.
All i wan right now is get back wat i paid unfairly (ie the adult fares while my card was confiscated), n the remainder amt in my bus concession stamp. wrong meh? demanding meh? overboard meh? i dont think so. i travel to n fro like some tour guide jus 2 get my card back, all along using adult fare. i m not some rich guy if not i would take private transport right? all those money i use r my own earnings from holiday n weekend jobs jus to keep my studies goin n hav proper meals. n for those who talk abt wat needy bla bla bla, shut up ok! u r not some charity org or wat. i m from a single parent family, my allowances, including my sch fees r from my own part time jobs ok!! all these money spent on the fares r not few dollars, its almost $20++!
to the guy who mentioned "corrupted card is consumer fault", i used the card the day b4 the incident, its working fine. its in my wallet since day 1, same position, same orientation. so dont tell me its my fault ok! so wat if the card expired @ that pt of time, cant i keep my card (anyway i cant do anything wif it) n clarify wif my sch admin the next day? y muz the dvr take my card? how 2 cheat fare wif an expired card? and i did check wif a no of other bus dvrs from the same company, even to the pt of goin 2 the terminal n checking wif dvrs of the same service, they all confirmed that cannot confiscate the card, even the officer was pissed n confused!!!
n to those who say complain to CASE, dont worry i will do it. not bcos i got nth better 2 do. its bcos i wan to get back the unfair amts that i spent
tks for reading the long post. -
i totally agree with you..Originally posted by gohby:I feel very disgusted with the belligerent replies with this thread, which are obviously are unbalanced, reeks of intolerance and uninformative. So I am going to air my views.
First and foremost, to the threadstarter.
I am sorry to hear your side of the coin. It is indeed a very nasty experience, which affected you adversely in terms of your mood, etc. Nonetheless, I encourage you to fight for your own rights! If you feel the need to, I would support you to complain to authorities! However, do note that when you are complaining, please do not be overly opinionated, emotionally-swayed. Be objective. Be clear of what you want to say. Try to type the letter as maturely as possible. That would help you in achieving your objective.
As for you trying to get back your money, apart from wishing you the best of luck, i would advise you to be FIRM, explain explicitly what happened, and why you would want a refund (based on your reasons). If they give you some half-hearted reply, complain to their manager. So long as your story is true, reason is on your side. So you got to fight for such an unjustified injustice which was done to you!
Best of luck!
Secondly, to MS.
First and foremost, I understand that you are working in SBS Transit. Henceforth, it would be understandable that you would be speaking for SBS Transit. And so, as a result, your views on certain issues may be one-sided. So far, after looking through your comments, I have to agree that even though they are not emotive, they are unbalanced. But I do understand your position and your limitations.
Secondly, I am quite put off by the phrase "student fare is not an entiltlement" and "You have to acknowledge that if one day the companies decided to withdraw this privilege & make everyone pay adult fare you still have to pay it. " Such statements reflect very badly on SBS Transit.
The reason why there is concession pass is to make travelling more affordable for students, who are not financially stable. You may like to argue that SBS Transit is a private company and so all rights are reserved, etc etc etc. However, you fail to understand that the primary priority of a bus company is to transport commuters from one place to another, not to earn big bucks. Your statements are suggestive that the bus company is king, which is entirely not true. For your information, where does the bus company gather its profits from? The commuters. If there are no commuters, would you be needed? Would the buses be needed? NO. Right, so please donÂ’t say until SBS Transit is being so benevolent by giving concessions, etc. Try withdrawing the concession and see how the society would react. Do not undermine society pressure.
You may also like to face the brutal truth that if the commuters are not happy, and should they boycott public transport as a result, your rice-bowl would be smashed. Same goes for the bus company itself. If the bus company doesnÂ’t want to give bus concession, they can just withdraw it, just see what the commuters can do. Thus, I would advise to rephrase your phrases!
Now to SBS_Boy
I think the one to be blamed here is you. It may sound uncouth, but shame on you for lack of empathy and understanding towards others! You commented that “For your OWN infomatin if you do not know, most cases, corrupted cards are cause by the user itself..”. Okay, this is true. But please, what about the other cases which are not in the “most cases”? Who is the one to be held accountable for the corrupted cards? Commuters? Tsk. Tsk. And I would suggest that you ought to rephrase your sentence, because you could had easily omitted out certain words, such as “For your OWN informatin*” which would made other people think that you are giving a lecture. You just conveniently avoided the fact that the poor thread starter is currently facing with such an unpleasant incident, and that he had to pay adult fare, even though he was given the concession, and yet just go on with your preaching. JEEZ. Have you ever thought of the thread starter point of view before you start your lecture? The anxiety of going everywhere without an ez link card, the trouble he/she has encountered just to get back his card, the amount of time spent in trying to get his card back, his feelings? No, you didn’t. So there.
I am sorry if I had inadvertently hurt people in the process of commenting, but I feel that the comments which you’ve made would be very hurting to the thread starter. On a side note, I feel that the bus drivers should be more professional in handling such cases in the future. Looking at the current situation, I am not very pleased at how bus drivers handle such cases. The bus driver should CONVINCE the passenger to hand over the card, and not to “trick” or lure , be it directly or indirectly, the passenger to hand over the ez link card. It is extremely infuriating and is being seen as a barbaric act. Furthermore, it is definitely not going to a pleasant experience for passenger, the bus driver and the bus company. So I hope the bus company could come up with alternative methods to eradicate (or lessen) such incidents from happening again in the future.
Thank you for reading my point of view. =) -
MS,I suggest that you don't bother to reply of what they said,The more words you say,The more flaming will come.Afterall we public service provider always in the loosing sides in most stereotype public viewsOriginally posted by MS:Yes definately SBS still has quite a way to go towards true qualilty service otherwise I wouldn't be slogging my way to ensure as much as possible the best goes to the road with reasonable budget. In my view, the true quality workshop service is zero breakdown stats yet I still don't burst budget. But I am not God, so I will never be able to be perfect. Neither can my colleagues.
However you cannot deny that every single day there're people who're doing their very best to bring out the best service to the public.
Likewise, when I went to Autofrance, I respect the sales rep and only make reasonable demands for freebies. So that I balance the income of Autofrance at the same time justify the money I pay. You'd not be surprised. If you respect the service provider, the service provider will be so obligated to serve you better.
Or when I called Mcdonald's for an order, I'd greet the person who picked up the phone "Hi good evening." The person over the end of the line hurriedly greet back and was extremely courteous throughout the entire transaction.
The bottomline is fairness & respect. If the bugger who served you gave you rubbish when you showed him respect, you have a clear conscious when you feedbacked his poor service to his boss to ask for compensation.
A good deal does not need to be a deal where you get the best and everything. A good deal is a fair deal whereby needs are met at both ends with no one abusing any of the loopholes. This applies to all the customer service oriented industries inclusive of the concession fares issue.
I hope you understand.
-
its uselessOriginally posted by Ito_^:
-
No point complaining to CASE. You need to pay a fee to join their membership. It's around 20 bucks or so. So in the end you also still would not get back the money you spent on your bus fare, but unless of course you want redress the grievance which you think SBST caused.
My advice...
Write to the forums. Write into the newspapers. It would be a good wake up call to SBST to examine some of their policies.
And it is natural people from the company would take the company's side. And it's not true that the public has a totally bad opinion of the public service companies.
But the bottom line is, SBST customer service really needs to improve. -
Stop kpkb and act like a man. As John Wayne said, "A man's gotta do what he's gotta do". So if you feel so strongly the grievance of your ez link card being confiscated, go to the smrt/ bus company to seek a redress and/or compensation and clear the air!
Still not happy, then talk to the press. Bring the whole company down. That'll teach them tomess around with you..........
And then still not happy, go F spider liao.......
-
so sad singapore got such ppl like MS.. so sad.. =(
yup.. Precious i agree with wat u said =) -
next time dun support SBS liao.
-
so...Originally posted by ^tamago^:next time dun support SBS liao.
u gonna walk home/ school/ work everyday? -
m sure all this is to blame the decision and policy makers.. but again, bus drivers are alone, they can always decide to give people chance and dont confiscate the card.. no one in the right mind will keep quiet when the card is confiscated...
coplaining to CASE? a bit useless.. everyone knows how slow mediation, claims and complaints are settled -
either you walk home, if not take taxi or you work your way to owning a car and drive to sch (if you're above 18 and has the capital to do so la)Originally posted by asdfzhao:so...
u gonna walk home/ school/ work everyday? -
Did you see the rego?Originally posted by UnLeAsH_cHa0s:1st of all guys the all caps title is bcos i m really super pissed wif wats my situation, so no offence 2 any1. jus needed 2 made this known to other ppl 2 prevent them from suffering like me.
a few days ago i was boarded bus 65 at bendemeer rd goin towards orchard direction. when i tap my ezlink card, there is this error sound (u all should know wat i mean), n the idiot reader showed "CARD EXPIRED". so i tout mayb got some prob n i used my Adult ezlink card. i moved to the back of bus. The dvr called me to go n tap my student card again. thinkin that he may wanna help me i passed my card to him w/o hesitation. WTF he took my card, say my card expired n he insist on keeping my card, saying its some crap company policy. wa i damn DL la, but he driving so i LL stay calm. i showed him my receipt which i bought my bus cencession, its obviously JUNE 2008, n he say he hav 2 keep the card, den jus slot it into his pocket, n gimme some kuku receipt. i told him it gonna b some system error wat, how can expire? he keep shaking his head, say wat call some crap no. aft 5 days bla bla bla, those push blame stories. DAMN PISSED at this moment.
nvm i tout mayb its jus misunderstanding. so i call the no. on the receipt, n tell them my situation. mind u this is like more than week later n i hav been using adult fare every freaking day, which is like almost $5 per day to go sch. if u guys were in my shoes u would expect some form of compensation for the adult fare right, more than $20 by den. i mean i got bus concession leh! liddat i losing end no matter wat right!?!? the ans i got was "we will pay ur balance of the bus concession based on the total cost minus no of days left in the mth" wa lao eh obvious "EAT" me leh!!! den as 4 my adult fare they say is case by case basis may not compensate WTF!!
in the end finally case close. they say my card corrupted muz replace dammit. muz pay fee somemore!!! obviously i muz pay wat if not how go sch??? up till now i havent received compensation for the adult fares i have used, & not 2 mention the remainder of my bus concession @ the time of confiscate. this is really pissing me off, i hav been travelling to n fro from bus terminals 2 terminals trying 2 get my card n claims. waste of time n money, study time oso affected. in due course i will bring this matter up to CASE definitely. i really cant stand this kinda service. sry 4 the long post but this really muz b made known to every1.
SO NEXT TIME U TAKE BUS, UR CARD SOMEHOW GOT SOME IDIOTIC ERROR N THE DVR INSIST ON TAKING UR CARD 4 WATEVER REASON, DONT GIVE HIM!!! KEEP UR CARD N TRY 2 VERIFY WIF TICKETING OFFICE OR WATEVER JUS DONT GIVE HIM THE CARD. I HAVE VERIFIED THIS WIF A LOT OF OTHER BUS DVRS N THEY HAVE COMFIRMED THAT EXPIRED CARDS R NOT 2 B CONFISCATED INSTEAD RETURNED TO THE OWNER. -
even if its an entitlement, he has qualified for the entitlement and he has paid for itOriginally posted by MS:I know you're unhappy. But you forgot to acknowledge that students bus fare is not an entitlement. It is subsidised because the transport companies want to help those who're in need.
You have to acknowledge that if one day the companies decided to withdraw this previledge & make everyone pay adult fare you still have to pay it.
I apologise for the following brutal fact which may sound offensive but I'm trying to explain in to reality... "If you're not happy then get yourself your own transport or walk."
BTW, if you think that this is a real problem, write in properly and be focus on your objective and avoid unnecessary offensive remarks. Because when you behave like a gentleman, you'll realise that things move faster.
I wish you all the best.
in my opinion now, SBS shld compensate him the adult bus fare he used during that week as he has already bought concession
if after buying concession but commuters are still expected to pay then i think its obviously cheating
i do not see anything wrong wif this posting
will u be happy if u were asked to pay "double" ?
i wish to remind u public transport is essentially a service provided to the public, in many countries public transport jus earn enuff to get them going Or they get fundings from their government
i dun see the case for singapore, pls dun tell me know SBS transit is not gahment owned -
recently i have a problem too. when i tapped my card it deducted a fare of an adult , then i called their hotline the lady say she will call me back a few days later to tell me my problem. i waited for about 9 days then i called them back , the nice lady identifiend my problem immidiately saying that i need to inform my school to ask them to send smrt information , then she told me by the next day i go to any counter at any mrt station just tell them i want to renew my card , true enough everything worked out fine but i was quite angry cause before i realised my card deduct and adult fare i actually used it for 3 day and from 15 dollars to about left 1 dollar plus . cause when you tap when u boad and you dont tap when u alight it will deduct the full fare which for adult is $2++ -.- but overall i think the first lady who told me to wait a few days is actually bullsh*t she cant even identfy my problem and simply dont care about giving me a reply i really wonder how smrt can hire such people .
-
When did you see those sucking company, pay back $$$ that they owe so fast. they don't care at all. they only realise it when there an auditing in the company. that why most of the time the company declare that they earn profit and forgetting to pay back.. it really suck..
-
Yea write to newspaper. Make it big & in no time there will be tons of people with similar cases coming out, & those talk shows will be talkin all abt it & lets see what good reason they can find if they wanna rise the fare price again.
-
All I can say is that this is a case of nobody's fault. Rather it is a case of bad handling on SBST's part, after all I've been called rude twice (1 by someone who's a bitch, and 1 who's genuinely angry). So I sympathise with the thread-starter and am glad that you did not stoop to making a hoo-ha on the bus.
As for whether student fares is an entitlement or subsidy based on good-will, it's a kind of promise either way. Even if you think that we take the fares for granted, a promise is a promise. Entitlement or subsidy, if you're a god-damn pampered student, you should still be paying student fare. Why the hell should we just let this entitlement/subsidy be taken from the victim?
Hence the only option that remains is for SBST to clear this matter swiftly.
And to the thread-starter, please don't teach others to disobey the driver or whatever instructions given to you if such matters cropped up again. I used to work 14 hrs a day clearing up the mess left by customers who disobey us, walk all over us etc. But please don't let the driver walk all over you also.
I understand your frustrations at SBST's slowness, and I encourage you to make as much noise to SBST as possible, but PLEASE DO NOT rave, rant and complain about the innocent souls who answer your queries. There is a difference between chastening SBST and doing the same to individuals. I believe that good service comes in part from good customers, and I've had a fair share of trouble. If the svc was not to your satisfaction, please do not make the person you speak to your scapegoat. But if the fellow is obviously rude and unhelpful, that's another story.
Hope your problem gets resolved soon. -
tks for ur reply. but jus 2 clear things up, i did not in any case try to teach others 2 disobey the dvr or instructions given. i m only trying to let some of the consumers out there know that such inconvenience may happen to them n they will end up on losing end, so protect urself of cos wif no violence involved. wat really pissed me off is -Originally posted by SBS3625D:All I can say is that this is a case of nobody's fault. Rather it is a case of bad handling on SBST's part, after all I've been called rude twice (1 by someone who's a bitch, and 1 who's genuinely angry). So I sympathise with the thread-starter and am glad that you did not stoop to making a hoo-ha on the bus.
As for whether student fares is an entitlement or subsidy based on good-will, it's a kind of promise either way. Even if you think that we take the fares for granted, a promise is a promise. Entitlement or subsidy, if you're a god-damn pampered student, you should still be paying student fare. Why the hell should we just let this entitlement/subsidy be taken from the victim?
Hence the only option that remains is for SBST to clear this matter swiftly.
And to the thread-starter, please don't teach others to disobey the driver or whatever instructions given to you if such matters cropped up again. I used to work 14 hrs a day clearing up the mess left by customers who disobey us, walk all over us etc. But please don't let the driver walk all over you also.
I understand your frustrations at SBST's slowness, and I encourage you to make as much noise to SBST as possible, but PLEASE DO NOT rave, rant and complain about the innocent souls who answer your queries. There is a difference between chastening SBST and doing the same to individuals. I believe that good service comes in part from good customers, and I've had a fair share of trouble. If the svc was not to your satisfaction, please do not make the person you speak to your scapegoat. But if the fellow is obviously rude and unhelpful, that's another story.
Hope your problem gets resolved soon.
1. all other dvrs i consulted CONFIRMED that confiscation is not allowed by the dvr. in my poly days i hav experienced expired cards, but @ that time i was at the ticket top-up counter trying 2 top up (using adult fare of cos no cheating here, poly students should know wat i mean) the counter lady had my card in her hands, she was behind the counter mind u! i cant do anything 2 her right? instead of retaining my card, she asked my POLITELY if i wan 2 keep my card or simply refund the values in it. so y this time is diff? cos bus n MRT diff?
2. the staff i spoke to r always jnr cust svc offrs on the hotline. they dunno anything n jus say "case by case basis" regarding my fare claims. trying 2 make me fed up n jus give up in my opinion. -
Since you confirm/verify liao, then i think this bus driver must be quite guailanOriginally posted by UnLeAsH_cHa0s:SO NEXT TIME U TAKE BUS, UR CARD SOMEHOW GOT SOME IDIOTIC ERROR N THE DVR INSIST ON TAKING UR CARD 4 WATEVER REASON, DONT GIVE HIM!!! KEEP UR CARD N TRY 2 VERIFY WIF TICKETING OFFICE OR WATEVER JUS DONT GIVE HIM THE CARD. I HAVE VERIFIED THIS WIF A LOT OF OTHER BUS DVRS N THEY HAVE COMFIRMED THAT EXPIRED CARDS R NOT 2 B CONFISCATED INSTEAD RETURNED TO THE OWNER. -
From the purple sticker found on all SBST buses:
Bus drivers are authorised to retain any concession passes...... -
Originally posted by shade343:You should have just tear off your T shirt, show the bus driver your 6pecs, proceed to punch him untill he gives back your EZ link card.
-
You think they bother to read?The next thing they will complain that the Driver is unprofessional in retaining cards.Period.Originally posted by Scania:From the purple sticker found on all SBST buses:
Bus drivers are authorised to retain any concession passes...... -
where the sticket found on SBS buses?Originally posted by Scania:From the purple sticker found on all SBST buses:
Bus drivers are authorised to retain any concession passes......
i didn't really see any when i board the bus.
can snap a pic of the sticker to show us?
or tell us where is the sticker pasted on (which part of the bus)
i'll want to go read the contents of the sticker